When a customer provides a sales tax exemption certificate, your business is legally responsible for verifying it before accepting it. An invalid certificate shifts the tax liability to your business — the supplier owes the tax, not the buyer. ExemptDocs tells your team exactly how to verify any exemption certificate for all 50 states plus DC, with direct links to official government portals, phone numbers, and step-by-step verification instructions.
Every state has different rules for how long a certificate is valid, whether it can be verified online, and what information must match. A Texas Resale Certificate (Form 01-339) requires checking the buyer's Sales Tax Permit status with the Texas Comptroller. A New York certificate requires the buyer's Certificate of Authority number. Some states offer instant online lookup; others require a phone call. Getting this wrong in an audit means back taxes, interest, and penalties — all payable by your business, not the buyer.
For every US state and DC, ExemptDocs gives your team: (1) the exact government portal URL where the buyer's registration can be confirmed, (2) the correct certificate form name and the fields to check, (3) the state tax authority's phone number for cases where online lookup is unavailable, (4) a step-by-step checklist your team follows for each review, and (5) an automatic timestamped log of every verification attempt that becomes part of your permanent audit record tied to the specific certificate.
A state sales tax audit typically covers 3–4 years of transactions. If an auditor finds that your business accepted certificates from customers whose registrations were invalid, expired, or fictitious, you owe the uncollected tax for every one of those transactions — plus interest at up to 12% per year and, in many states, a penalty of 10–25% of the tax owed. For a mid-size supplier processing hundreds of exempt transactions per month, an audit gap can reach six figures. ExemptDocs's verification workflow is the documented evidence you need to demonstrate reasonable care and good faith.
When a buyer sends an exemption certificate through ExemptDocs, it is automatically matched to the correct state form. Your team receives a verification task with pre-filled state-specific instructions. Open the official state portal link, enter the buyer's registration number, confirm the status is active, and mark the review complete. ExemptDocs records the verifier's name, the portal checked, the timestamp, and the result — permanently attached to that certificate for audit access at any time.